A Chilli Sauce for all Occasions
aka peanut rayu 🌶️
I am addicted to chilli. Whether it’s hoarding it in my desk at work, sneaking it into my friends’ already perfectly-spiced curries (sorry, Charlie), or filling the fridge with jars of variously spicy concoctions, chilli has a permanent and irreplaceable fixture in my life. There’s been a bag of home-grown, sun-dried Birdseyes in my stocking for three Christmases running now, that’s how extreme the reputation is.
Recently, I was pulled over by airport security to inspect the contents of my backpack. Naturally, I started to panic about the meticulously deconstructed drone that I was smuggling across the border, and lined up my pathetic excuses. The object of the security man’s interest was not the lithium battery, however, nor the drone propellors that I’d ingeniously stashed in my breast pocket. No, it was the five jars of variously labelled chilli powders that were lurking at the bottom of my bag. He took them out one by one, confusion palpably growing with every jar that he removed. Gochujaru flakes, dried chipotle seasoning, shichimi togarashi, Tajín… I was absolutely bleeding mad. He looked at me, and I shrugged. ‘I’m addicted to chilli?’
Who knew it could be such a successful drone decoy.
The chilli flakes in question, for those of you wondering, were the travel essentials for my most recent trip to Kenya, where I was responsible for imparting some of my spicy wisdom to the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed young chef at Kiwayu Safaris. (It took him three days to admit to me that he didn’t eat chilli 😂 .) Suffice to say, the various chilli-inspired dishes that we produced went down a treat, and we got through 1.5 litres of peanut rayu in a week. From our rather temperamental safari gas burner and homemade beach barbecue Oscar and I cooked grilled lobster with chilli garlic butter and double cooked chips; prawn pilau with peanut rayu; courgette tempura and prawn tacos with lashings of lime, spicy chipotle beans, pickled onion and guac; and platefuls of mango and Tajín Kingfish ceviche with homemade chapati chips. Note the recurring theme.
There’s been some contention around my sharing this recipe, as it is just so damn good it should probably be my trade secret, but I think it would be a sin to keep it to myself. So here is my very special recipe for Peanut (Chilli) Rayu. It comes with a warning label: hide it from your housemates – they will eat it all.
Peanut (Chilli) Rayu
for a large jar
250g raw peanuts
3 cloves garlic, finely diced
200ml-ish neutral oil (I used sunflower)
100g sesame seeds
3 dried habanero chillies, finely chopped
10 dried birds eye chillies, finely chopped
5 tbsp gochugaru chilli flakes
6 tbsp dark soy sauce
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Roast the peanuts in a baking tray for 15-20 minutes, stirring half way through. They should be slightly browned and aromatic, and their papery skins coming away from the nut. Leave to cool.
Meanwhile, fry the garlic in a tablespoon of neutral oil until golden.
In a dry frying pan, toast the sesame until lightly browned.
Once the peanuts are cool, it’s time to start the slightly laborious task of removing them from their skins. Put on a podcast or a good playlist and get peeling. Once peeled, coarsely crush in batches in a pestle and mortar.
In a large jar, combine the peanuts, sesame seeds, chopped dried chillies, gochugaru flakes and soy sauce. Add the remaining oil slowly, until the ingredients are submerged and when stirred you get a nice, chunky sauce consistency. It should be around 200ml. Seal and store in the fridge, ready to crack out on any occasion.
Thank you so much for reading! If you liked the recipe (or the ramblings) I’d love to hear your feedback 💛 and please do share the love using the link below.